188 – Disprovement
It was the first time I’d ever heard someone say halfway. Even though I had heard the word indecisiveness, I had never heard of the word halfway for some reason.
It wasn’t easy to interpret the meaning of what Roel said to me, ‘It’s worse than not doing halfway things’, so I had to frown.
It could be that the arrogant and arrogant side of myself that I show to others in triathlon is evaluated as halfway.
Or it could be advice or a warning about my ambiguous relationship with Ellie. It could be that Roel noticed the unusual atmosphere flowing in the relationship between a lover and his younger brother, or Ellie could have tricked Roel with a lie.
However, Roel’s ecstatic expression was by no means an angry one. Rather, I feel like a kind person who gives sweet candy to cute children and tells them that they are in danger… It was not persuasive to call it a warning.
Unable to clear her doubts, I finally asked Ellie what she and Roel were talking about. Then Ellie smiled and said with a curious expression.
“We only talked about the content of the game. Roel oppa praised him for making good use of the detection magic…. I ended up asking you to cheer for the next game.”
It won’t be a lie. The conversation between Roel and Ellie was short, and it seemed like I had heard such a conversation at first glance. Then it is not jealousy or warning. Was Roel just advising me out of the blue?
“Why? What did Roel oppa say?”
Ellie asked, her eyes shining with interest. She shook her head at the question, and Ellie puffed out her cheeks as if dissatisfied with my answer. I ignored Ellie and sat in a corner to organize her thoughts.
There was one thing that bothered me more than anything else. Roel’s expression seemed to mimic Ellie’s ecstatic expression. What the hell was that
There is a saying that when you love someone, you resemble them, but it was more accurate to say that their expressions were the same rather than similar. It was such a perfect expression that I could feel the fear.
To make a hasty guess, the reason why Roel and Ellie made such expressions when they looked at me might be because they felt the same way. I have no way of ascertaining what that feeling was, but that was the most convincing guess.
I still felt uncomfortable, but I watched Roel play, thinking I wouldn’t care anymore. Unlike me, Roel, who was not halfway, was a bit mean-spirited, wondering what kind of image he would show.
The labyrinth was characterized by a terrain so narrow that two people could open their hands to block the passage. It is an unfavorable terrain for Roel, who uses a great sword. The ability to wield the sword as usual is limited due to the nature of the terrain.
The relay magic only showed Roel a blatantly handsome face. The reaction of the audience was also good. Of course, I know it’s because of last year’s performance and the skills I showed in Extermination, but I couldn’t look at it favorably because of my inferiority complex.
Roel and Ilia dispersed immediately after the match started. Not only was he confident in his skills, but because Ilya also used a greatsword, he couldn’t attack in a narrow passage, so it was an inevitable choice for efficiency.
An enemy appeared in front of Roel, who was exploring the labyrinth with a relaxed expression. I knew from the commentator’s explanation that it was the Mujion Academy team. It was a combination of one swordsman warrior and an alchemist judging by the bag on his shoulder.
The opposing team that discovered Roel was hesitant at first, but the fact that Roel was alone gave up their hesitation and raised their swords.
It was the swordfighting warrior who had the right to go first. Throwing away his hesitation, the warrior held his shield in front and ran out without hesitation. While closing the distance with Roel, he tried to limit the attack range of the great sword. Knowing that the destructive power of a greatsword comes from the street, it was an act of trying to find a gap that would always be exposed in an attack.
However, Roel responded easily. Seeing the figure of the warrior charging forward with his shield forward, he raised his large greatsword with both hands and prepared to strike. Upon entering the range, the warrior stopped walking outside the attack range of the greatsword, momentarily conflicted by the aggressive stance exuding a will to strike down with the shield.
Unlike Roel, warriors had an alchemist to support them from the rear. I don’t know if it’s 1:1 sparring. There was no need for a warrior to forcefully dig in while shedding Roel’s blows.
With the intention of buying time for the alchemist, Roel moved first with a smile at the sight of the warrior stepping so that he could step back at any time while keeping his distance.
Bang-!
Roel’s greatsword hit the floor. A cloud of dust rose up and obscured his vision, but the warrior’s eyes, accustomed to this environment, could see Roel’s huge gap.
A momentary thought flashed through the warrior’s mind: whether to strike back as it is or wait for the alchemist’s support. Raising the greatsword stuck in the ground forward, Roel, who bent slightly at the waist, quickly closed the distance with the warrior.
When Roel came within his range of attack, the warrior took a step back and reflexively swung his sword.
Kang-!
Roel blocked the attack on his left arm, which was holding onto his greatsword, by sharpening it.
A terrifying wind passed in front of the warrior who had taken a step back in advance. The warrior, who unknowingly gave strength to the hand holding the shield, stepped quickly and skillfully maintained a tight distance.
Roel swung his greatsword once again. With a booming sound, the greatsword cut through the air. At that moment, the alchemist, who had finished preparing, threw a reagent bottle containing a thin liquid towards Roel, whose movement was restricted due to the limited space.
It must have been a lot of practice, and at the same time, the warrior raised his shield and charged Roel. Due to his swinging his greatsword, Roel, whose center of gravity was focused on the greatsword, was in a state where he could see a big gap.
A warrior’s blow stabbed into an empty body and a reagent bottle flying behind it. No one in the crowd watching the broadcast doubted that Roel was in danger.
But instead of shifting his center of gravity, Roel leaned sideways, kicked off the wall, and leaped into the air. The warrior’s attack missed, and the flying reagent bottle was blocked by the side of the great sword swung at great speed.
Pupperpung-!
An explosion occurred as if a firecracker exploded, but Roel, who absorbed the impact with the wide side of his greatsword, slammed his greatsword down and fell.
Thanks to the reflexive raising of the shield, the warrior’s body was pushed against the wall as if it were being bounced off. Due to the heavy blow of the great sword, the color of the shock artifact on the warrior’s chest changed even though the attack was blocked.
The warrior braced himself, pushing off the wall to correct his posture. After landing safely, Roel bent his knees and finished his preparations for a run. When our eyes met, they swung their swords at each other without saying who came first.
Can-Can-Can-!
The greatsword was a weapon that was not easy to handle due to its huge size and heavy weight. Due to its large movements, it was a weapon that always had to be aware of risks.
However, Roel countered the attack with the speed of the one-handed sword wielded by the warrior. He even evaded the attack by recklessly stepping on an irregular attack using a shield.
The waiting room reverberates as if an earthquake had occurred from the cheers of the crowd as the two fight spectacularly as they brush and strike each other’s swords.
Forgetting his initial goal of only buying time for the alchemist, a smile never left the warrior’s lips as he innocently swung his sword at the enemy in front of him. Similarly, Roel also blocked the sword, and a soft smile appeared on his lips.
The sight of the two exchanging gruesome attacks towards each other as if they had been concocted was so beautiful that at first glance it seemed like they were watching a sword dance, to the point that the alchemist who had prepared the reagent bottle hesitated to intervene.
By the time the alchemist finally decided to intervene and grabbed the vial, they had already struck each other.
The warrior intended to pierce Roel’s shock-absorbing artifact while shedding attacks from his greatsword with his shield. However, Roel dragged his foot back, twisted his wrist, and slashed his shield with the side of his greatsword.
The posture of the warrior who had been stabbing the sword collapsed, and the warrior’s upper body leaned towards Roel. The raised greatsword cut through the warrior’s body. Belatedly, the alchemist’s reagent bottle hit Roel’s body, but at that moment, the greatsword Roel threw pierced the alchemist’s shock-absorbing artifact.
A tremendous shout erupted. It was a shout of support for Roel, who faced two people alone. It was natural for the audience to respond enthusiastically in that it was a direct confrontation, not a trick like the first game.
[Whew, is it Mujion Academy? At the end, reflexively swinging the sword to attack… Even if I made a small mistake, I would have been eliminated.]
Roel’s self-talk flows through relay magic. He let out a deep sigh, dropping his shoulders heavily as if he were genuinely relieved. Along with that, relay magic closes up the shock-absorbing artifact mounted on Roel’s chest. As if to prove the difference between a narrow number, it turned red. Right before being eliminated, the warrior lifted the sword with all his might and touched Roel.
The crowd cheering for Transcendence Academy breathed a sigh of relief, and the crowd cheering for Mujion gave a clean acknowledgment of defeat with a sad expression and applauded Roel for a good game. It was different from my game, which was full of swear words and booing.
As I was watching the match, I unknowingly swept my face once. Goosebumps rise from the back.
It wasn’t because of my game and other spectators’ reactions. It was because of the way Roel showed in the game.
Roel entered the realm of transcendentalists ahead of schedule. He even killed an officer of the Church and a member of the Confsion while he had just become a Transcendentalist.
That means Roel has the skills to knock out his opponents in one blow. However, Roel deliberately hid his skills and fought fiercely. It was a close situation until the end, and Mujion struggled, but Roel seemed to have won by just a single point. And then the expression of sincere relief and the words of praising Mujion….
The awkward atmosphere in the waiting room has changed. The seniors who watched the game as if acknowledging Roel’s skills exclaimed admiration and applauded.
“As expected, it is Roel. It was a great fight.”
“Wow, that was really close. Even if I made a little mistake, Roel might have been eliminated.”
“… He sure does well.”
Receiving cheers and applause from the crowd, Roel’s gentle smile through relay magic made me… I felt uneasy for no reason. And belatedly realizing the identity of that anxiety, I shrugged my shoulders involuntarily.
This… It wasn’t the Roel I knew.